*RANT* Support threads are mostly useless.

[Alienslayer2406]

*Now, keep in mind, this is a LONG and winding rant that goes on about several different things and goes off-topic at some point. I know it's unnecessarily salty. Just bear with me here.*

Granted, not all support threads are useless; some provide adequate assistance to the problem at hand. However, with each day that passes, it seems that these threads become more and more rare.

Let's say, hypothetically, you have a problem with your computer, or console. Maybe a program doesn't run correctly, or saves don't load. Maybe the thing won't turn on at all. So, you turn to Google for help.

So, after sifting through a sea of threads and posts, you finally find it. A post that describes your exact problem. It's comparable to the golden ticket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. You scroll down to read the comments. What do they say?

"Same here."

Your hope immediately dwindles as you find yourself in an echo chamber of people who have literally the exact same problem as you do, but don't have the answer. Now you've wasted all that time for nothing. Oh well, better luck next time, Jimbo!

This happens to me literally all the time. Like, I could not care less if you had the same problem as me. Reply something helpful, or don't reply at all. Like that one scene from that movie I can't remember: "Don't do that to me. Don't give me hope."

Then there's the occasional trolls who do not provide a single ounce of help whatsoever. I remember last Christmas I got Super Mario 3D All-Stars only to find out that my Switch didn't work. The thing literally would not turn on. I googled it, and, as it turns out, I could send it in for repairs! The only downside? I'll lose literally everything. That's not an exaggeration.

Apparently, all they only really do is replace the system with a refurbished one. In other words, they throw the broken Switch out, and mail you a new one; one without all your save data. As it turns out, leaving your Switch with a dead battery for months on end is actually bad for it. Huh. Who would've thunk it.

Now, as it turns out, I could link my profile to a Nintendo Account, and upload the save data from my old Switch to a new one. The problems is, the device needs to be on to do so. Now, this wouldn't be so bad, if Nintendo didn't lock cloud saves behind a paywall, and forego adding cloud support to certain games all together. You remember that new Animal Crossing game that came out last year? Here's a fun fact: If something happens to your Switch, and your save data is unobtainable, you have to start the game over from the very beginning! Fun!

Imagine if a random power surge damages your PC, and because you didn't pay for a service that, in my opinion, should be free, you lose hours worth of progress in each and every one of your games. How would you feel?

Anyway, I found a thread on Reddit with my exact problem, and there were only a few comments. Some chanted "same here" like literally EVERYONE ELSE DOES and weren't able to help. But, there were two comments that caught my eye.

One said: "Give it to me!"
The other said: ":)"

I'm sorry, ":)"?! HOW IS ":)" SUPPOSED TO HELP?!

I know a lot of people probably disagree with me and are going to say "Woah, chill out, dude. What are you, insane?"

Yes.
Yes I am.

Every single time I see this type of thing happen (the repeated "same here" in threads), I just want to scream out into the void that is space until my lungs nearly burst and my throat aches. I know there's nothing wrong with it. I know that it's good for a post to get lots of responses, regardless of what they say. This allows it to get more publicity, and therefore someone who can actually help might join in. But it just makes me so unbelievably frustrated.

So, yeah. That's about it.

[TruebornJester]

Same here

[Irene ❤]

"same here" is innocent. The person has the same problem and is stuck as well. The reply have probably help to bump the topic to chase for an answer.

Maybe topic writers could use titles such as [currently seeking solution] Problem xyz;
When someone post an answer, change it to [solved].

[Alienslayer2406]

Originally posted by TruebornJester:

Same here

https://youtu.be/AJ0E87EjU0A?t=12

[Alienslayer2406]

Originally posted by Irene ❤:

Maybe topic writers could names such as [currently seeking solution] Problem xyz
When someone post an answer, change it to [solved]

"same here" is innocent. The person has the same problem and is stuck as well. That reply did bumps the topic and helped slightly.

I know, but I still find it kind of frustrating. I made this just to vent, really. I tried to word it in some places that somebody might find funny. A way for others to be happy during my misery.

[ʙᴜɴ.ᴇ]

Amazon product questions really annoy me, someone asks a genuine question about the product before they buy like "what size is it?" and someone will reply with "I don't know sorry, but its big" like why reply if you don't know, you don't get brownie points you just annoy people.

[sfnhltb]

I also like where you reach a support question that asks a detailed question and gives a seemingly decent summary of the problem, and then immediately following it is a clearly copy/pasted reply or stock answer that has picked up one word in the question and ignored the rest of it that make it clear the answer is not going to help.

[Yasahi]

Originally posted by Alienslayer2406:

Imagine if a random power surge damages your PC, and because you didn't pay for a service that, in my opinion, should be free, you lose hours worth of progress in each and every one of your games. How would you feel?

Many games don't even use cloud saving. Then there's the people who turn cloud saving off and use local saving. Not to mention that's exactly how it has been until fairly recently with all gaming.

Plenty of people lose all of their progress when their harddrive dies, they reformat or switch computers. That's not really such a big thing. Want to avoid it? Keep backups of all the data you deem valuable. And never have those backups on the same drive.

Losing the saves doesn't mean you lose all the fun you had playing so I don't really mind.

[Alienslayer2406]

Originally posted by Yasahi:

Plenty of people lose all of their progress when their harddrive dies, they reformat or switch computers. That's not really such a big thing. Want to avoid it? Keep backups of all the data you deem valuable. And never have those backups on the same drive.

But that's the problem. Nintendo doesn't allow this unless you pay for Nintendo Switch Online.